Cathedral wins 8-3 over Auburn on senior night

SPRINGFIELD – In only its third year as a varsity squad, theCathedral girl’s ice hockey team has made the playoffs for the second time.

Cathedral defeated Auburn 8-3 on Saturday, improving itsrecord to 10-6-2. The win should improve Cathedral’s seeding in the playoffs,as they had previously qualified by beating Beverly last game.

The seeding for the state tournament will take place onFebruary 25th.

“It feels good,” said senior Taylor Ledwith. “We all comefrom a lot of different schools, but we all work together. Over three years we’vemade a huge accomplishment to make the playoffs twice.”

We’re all from different places but we still make a family togetherand work well,” said fellow senior Christa Mole. “It’s amazing how over thethree years we’ve become so close.”

The first two periods were back-and-forth with Cathedraltaking a 4-2 lead into the third period.

“I think it was pretty equal going into the third period,”said Cathedral coach Amanda Johnson. “They were working hard, getting shots onnet. It was nice to find the back of the net as often as we did.”

Among the season high eight goals, Cathedral was led by AmyHaggerty (three goals, two assists) and Jessie Egan (two goals, three assists).

After Auburn cut the Cathedral lead to 3-2 on two goals 16seconds apart in the second period, Haggerty extended the Cathedral lead withher first goal of the game.

In the third period Auburn again came within one. Less thana minute after Auburn scored, Haggerty stole the puck at the Auburn blue line,skated in unchallenged and beat the goaltender, giving Cathedral a 5-3 lead.

“I thought it was a good win,” said Haggerty. “It’s seniornight so it’s good for the girls to win.”